Descendants of Darius I Great to Alfred Landon

Notes for Yngvi Frey:
Mythological king of Sweden
Frey
World Mythology Dictionary:
Frey
(European mythology)
Most famous of the vanir were the twin deities, Frey and Freya, the son and daughter of Njord, the
handsome sea god. In Germanic mythology the brother-sister gods were instrumental in bringing
together the two divine races, the aesir and the vanir, so that Frey became assimilated with Frigg,
the wife of Odin.
Frey means 'lord' and Freya 'lady', a circumstance suggesting connections with the cult of the
sacred marriage in ancient West Asia. In the Uppsala temple, according to Adam of Bremen, there
was about 1200 an image of Frey with a pronounced phallus; the priests actually called him Fricco,
'the lover', and his Roman counterpart was Priapus, the son of Dionysus, and Aphrodite. Just as
Frey was the most handsome of the gods, having authority over rain, sunshine, and natural
fruitfulness, so Freya was the most beautiful of the goddesses, sharing with Odin one half of the
slain. On her journeys she used a trap driven by a pair of cats.
[Old Norse Freyr.]
Generation 30 (con't)
Freyr
Norse god of peace, fertility, rain, and sun, one of a group of fertility deities called Vanir. The son of
Njörd and brother of Freyja, he was especially venerated in pre-Christian Sweden, where he was
considered the progenitor of the royal line. The best-known story about him told of his love and lust
for the giantess Gerd, who was wooed and won for him by his servant. His worship was believed to
bring good weather and great wealth.
Freyr, traditional Swedish "Fröj/Frö" (sometimes anglicized Frey, from *frawjaz "lord"[1]) is one
of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather
and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals". Freyr, sometimes
referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the
Swedish royal house.
In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the
Vanir, the son of the sea god Njörðr, brother of the goddess Freyja. The gods gave him Álfheimr,
the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti
and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded
together and carried in a pouch when it is not being used. He has the servants Skírnir, Byggvir, and
Beyla.
The most extensive surviving Freyr myth relates Freyr's falling in love with the female jötunn Gerðr.
Eventually, she becomes his wife but first Freyr has to give away his magic sword which fights on
its own "if wise be he who wields it". Although deprived of this weapon, Freyr defeats the jötunn
Beli with an antler. However, lacking his sword, Freyr will be killed by the fire jötunn Surtr during the
events of Ragnarök.
Ynglinga saga
Snorri Sturluson starts his epic history of the kings of Norway with Ynglinga saga, a euhemerized
account of the Norse gods. Here Odin and the Æsir are men from Asia who gain power through
their prowess in war and Odin's skills. But when Odin attacks the Vanir he bites off more than he
can chew and peace is negotiated after the destructive and indecisive Æsir-Vanir War. Hostages
are exchanged to seal the peace deal and the Vanir send Freyr and Njörðr to live with the Æsir. At
this point the saga, like Lokasenna, mentions that incest was practised among the Vanir.
While Njord was with the Vanaland people he had taken his own sister in marriage, for that was